Xbox Live Gold members who are looking forward to their next set of games should brace themselves for all manners of stabbing and racing for the month of February as that is apparently the theme of the month. Xbox One users will have a chance to claim Shadow Warrior from Devolver Digital during the entire month of February while Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India will be available from February 16 to March 25.
On the Xbox 360 side of things (which are, as always, backward compatible), Split/Second will be available starting from February 1 to February 15, at which point it will be replaced by Crazy Taxi until February 28. Cumulatively, this represents some $70 worth of games for February if you were to buy them at their normal prices.
Shadow Warrior is a first-person slasher/shooter where the player will control Lo Wang, Zilla Enterprise's corporate shogun, as he attempts to retrieve a legendary blade of limitless power. Naturally, Lo Wang finds himself in rather dire straits as he is betrayed and left for dead, and he must use the blade's arcane power to thwart ancient gods from another realm. Guns, magic, and swordplay will be in ample supply, as will a whole host of human and demonic enemies. Upon release, Shadow Warrior received middling review scores on Metacritic with an average score of 76 across the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 versions of the game, although it was received well by a certain community and received a sequel in Shadow Warrior 2.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India takes the usual Assassin's Creed theme of placing players in an exotic place in history to fight a war in the shadows against the Templars and combines it with 2D elements; the best way that one can describe Chronicles is to imagine Super Mario Bros but with more stabbing and less mushrooms, like the rest of the Chronicles line. As the name suggests, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India takes place in India during the year 1841, putting you in the midst of a war between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company. Upon release, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India received some rather underwhelming reviews on Metacritic with an average score of 64 across the PS4 and Xbox One version.
Split/Second is an arcade racing game developed by Black Rock Studio and published by Disney Interactive Studios where players can build up a "power play" meter by doing things like stunts and drafting opponents. As you build up the meter, you can trigger environmental effects like blowing up a building or bringing down a plane to block off other players or create shortcuts. Upon release, Split/Second received good review scores on Metacritic, with an average rating of 83 across the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC versions.
Crazy Taxi is a classic open world racing arcade game where, as the name suggests, players have to pick up and drop off customers. Unlike your average, more mundane (and safer) taxi rides however, Crazy Taxi lets you drive like a madman and ignore all motor vehicle laws so things like driving on the sidewalk, speeding, and crashing into literally everything on and off the road is quite acceptable. Unfortunately, Crazy Taxi evidently didn't age well with critics as the Xbox 360 version received a score of 59 on Metacritic.
